


A Little Bit of Her

by shinyeevee



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Humor, Just wait for it, Love, Romance, Sharing a Bed, Some Spoilers, a lot of random stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 01:23:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6218110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinyeevee/pseuds/shinyeevee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nora, at first, is reluctant to travel with John Hancock.  He was everything that she disliked about the Commonwealth: in fact, it was hard to figure out whether or not he was actually on her side.  Nora knew this wasn't supposed to be her life - at least, it's not exactly how she planned spending her twenties.  But in Piper's words, "This is gonna be one hell of a story."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Bit of Her

**Author's Note:**

> POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT:
> 
> If you have not done the following and would not like to be spoiled on the contents of Fallout 4, please refrain from reading this work:  
> \- Obtained Hancock as a companion  
> \- Worked with the Railroad (throughout their questline)  
> \- Finished the Main Questline - from the time you reach Diamond City to the very end  
> \- Finished the Main Questline with the Railroad faction  
> \- Worked with the Railroad after completing MC  
> \- Played through Paladin Danse's personal quest Blind Betrayal OR do not know the outcome of his personal quest
> 
> Although most of this story is not set within the confines of specific quests, it does mention the quests and their outcomes throughout the story and will eventually be set post-MC. This is just a WIP, much like my other works, so thank you for your patience and happy reading!

This was probably the dumbest plan Deacon has had yet.

Sure, his armor was broken and she was out of bullets.  Kleo refused to lower her price for any repairs and the last of their caps were spent at the Third Rail - something Nora and Deacon admitted was worth it.  But there had to be jobs around Goodneighbor that’d pay their way to Diamond City.  Hell, Nora was willing to sit on Marowski’s lap for a couple hundred caps, and the guy seemed so lonely he might have even fell for it.  But Bobbi told Deacon that the caps were easy and she’d even give them some extra ammo to slug through a couple mirelurks.

“We’d even be able to keep the meat,” Deacon said as they waded through waist-high sewage towards the jackpot Bobbi had in store for them.  “And you make the  _ best  _ mirelurk cake.”

“At least it’s a huge  _ fuck you  _ to McDonough for not giving me Kellog’s keys,” Nora muttered.  She patted the wall reassuringly as they pulled through the last of the rubble into the basement of the cellar.  Bobbi and Mel were yapping excitedly about what was above them, yet the contents of the basement weren’t that impressive.  Nora browsed through a couple cabinets and glanced at Deacon with a frown.

She saw how McDonough lived.  It might just be a basement, but it wasn’t riddled with portraits and nice furniture like she suspected it would.

Nora knew something was up from the moment they started this stupid job.  First, Bobbi skirted around the edges of her plan like she didn’t want Deacon or Nora to leave the job with that information.  And when they were in too deep, Bobbi said she was planning a heist in Diamond City - despite the fact they probably were too far south to be anywhere around the the ruins of Boston anymore.  Even if Nora’s Pip-Boy wasn’t tracking her movement (and saying they were closer to leaving Boston than Diamond City), her senses told her something was completely off.

“Look, I know you haven’t been around for like, two hundred years,” Deacon mumbled as they started towards the door that led upstairs.  “And your internal compass might be thrown off, but are you feeling the same way I do about this job?”

“Like I said earlier, it was your idea,” Nora retorted.

It was only about thirty seconds later that they realized exactly  _ how  _ much Bobbi withheld from them.

 

“Well.  Fuck.”

Deacon was being too nice to say anything to Nora as he cleaned Bobbi’s blood spatter off Nora’s face.  He knew it was mostly his fault (read: solely his fault) that they were running an op with Bobbi in the first place.  But he didn’t know that the ghoul would be wicked enough to steal from her own mayor - or that Fahrenheit would basically force them to shoot Bobbi in the head for penance.  Which was probably the most mercy they were going to see in a while, considering they had to head back up to Goodneighbor without armor or bullets to see Hancock.

“It’s too late to take back your friendship ring,” Deacon told her, Nate’s gold band glinting in the afternoon sun.  Nora figured that selling it would be crude and leaving it at the bottom of a trunk would rot the sentimentality away.  Now, however, she wanted to cut Deacon’s finger off and throw it  _ and  _ the ring into the ocean.  “Look, I know things are bad.  But on the brightside...well, now we have a good story to tell back at HQ.”

Nora shrugged her tiny shoulders at him.  “Hey, Dez.  Remember how you sent us to escort four synths out of the Commonwealth?  They’re still at Nordhagen surrounded by hostiles.  Because we forgot to restock on ammo and let Tom check out our armor.  Ha, ha.”

“You’re so pessimistic sometimes.  I totally wouldn’t have spied on you for over a year if  I knew you would be ungrateful for my friendship,” Deacon told her.  He held her chin between his forefinger to tilt her head in various positions, looking for any marks that he might have missed.  “I think this would be a  _ great  _ time to calm down and look on the brightside.  We’re like, a little ways away from Diamond City.  And we’re stealthy!  You and I are the  _ masters  _ of stealth!”

“If we have absolutely almost no caps, how are we supposed to stock up in Diamond City?” Nora mumbled.  She honestly felt a bit defeated.  Fahrenheit might have spared her life, but whose to say Hancock would do the same?  “Stockton  _ has  _ to have a caravan coming through here.  Or something.”

Deacon shook his head and grabbed their things.  He knew the routes like the back of his hands - and maybe even the back of Nora’s hands.  South Boston was a putrid mess of ghouls, Gunners, and other intangible horrors.  The only reason Dez greenlighted their trip was because she knew Whisper and Deacon would be able to work some angles and weasel the synths out all at once.  Or at least die trying.

It took them the rest of the day to practically belly-crawl to Diamond City.  Deacon had to stop behind the bushes to change into a different outfit a few times, and Nora’s mood was still foggy as she tried to think of a way to spin this to Mayor Hancock.  Surely he was going to send someone after them if they didn’t show up in an allotted amount of hours.

Not only that, but she was definitely still reeling over the fact she nearly took part in a crime.  Fine, yeah, she’s had to kill a couple people.  But that was part of the new way of life - you couldn’t just walk down the street and expect gangs to ignore you anymore.  But stealing?  Committing crimes against leaders of communities?  Neither of those were on Nora’s agenda, particularly if it meant dealing with the first ghoul she ever met that could coherently utter a sentence.

Fine, Hancock scared her.  And the feeling amplified when she broke into his fucking  _ stash _ .

When they finally shuffled into Piper’s place, Nora’s mind was exhausted.  Deacon - dressed in city guard gear with his signature glasses - immediately headed to find something to eat.  Nora collapsed on the couch next to Piper and promptly lit a cigarette, hoping the reporter had something that would take her mind off Hancock.  Maybe a drink.  Or a baseball bat to the head.

“Railroad business?” Piper guessed, flicking her own cigarette into the ashtray next to her.  “You know everything’s off the record with you, Blue.  Can’t risk giving  _ you  _ up to the Institute, now can I?”

“Seems easier than our current situation,” Nora muttered.  She leaned her head against Piper and watched Nat fling herself into Deacon’s arms, excited that he was visiting her again.  That might have been the weirdest thing Nora’s seen yet - children were dazzled by Deacon’s mere presence.  “We ran out of supplies and went to Goodneighbor for an easy job, which turned out to be the worst crime imaginable, so I shot our boss in the head to atone for it.  Oh, and now we have to go back to Goodneighbor.  Because Mayor Hancock wants a word with me.”

Piper snorted.  “That guy?  You know, I’d rather have him lead the city than his brother.”

Nora groaned, craning her neck up to look at the reporter.  “He has a brother?”

“It’s that asshole up in  _ our  _ mayor’s office.  Talk about a powerful family.”  Piper put her cigarette to her mouth again and blew smoke towards the chugging fan on the side table.  “Don’t worry, they haven’t been on speaking terms in about twelve years.  I did a report on it a while back.”

It might have been a bit of a consolation that McDonough wouldn’t report Nora’s infractions to Hancock (which would only cement her title as “thief” considering she broke into his terminal and safe for Kellog’s key), but the idea of confronting Hancock didn’t sit well with her yet.  It took a while for Nora not to immediately associate  _ Bobbi _ with a feral, and they were digging for an entire day.  She watched Hancock stab a man to death upon entering Goodneighbor for the first time before inhaling some Jet and strolling back to his office.  Dissociating him from  _ danger  _ might be a little harder.

Nora knew she was being an ass, considering Daisy was nice and there were probably a lot of ghouls who were ostracized for their skin and voices.  But she just woke up after two hundred years of normalcy and didn’t even know how to process the fact Nuka Cola still existed.  How was she supposed to immediately adjust to highly irradiated, coherent beings?

Piper donated some caps to the cause in exchange for a promised sit-down with Deacon.  She gave Nora some gum drops and patted her shoulder as they stood at the gate of Diamond City for goodbyes.  “You’ll be okay, Blue.  Mayor Hancock’s...well, you’ll be okay.”  Piper hugged her tightly before shooting a glare at Deacon.  “And I’ll see  _ you  _ later.”

“I have no idea why she hates me,” Deacon mumbled as they jogged towards Goodneighbor.  It was on the way, and they agreed to get it over with as soon as possible.  There was no need for Fahrenheit to follow them to those four synths and cause them even  _ more  _ trouble.  “Is it because of our date?  I  _ told  _ her we have nothing in common!”

Nora didn’t comment as she was suddenly plagued by thoughts of Deacon and Piper holding hands.  She loved the two of them, but she wasn’t ready for another nuclear fallout.

 

Hancock didn’t shoot them on sight or force them to kill each other.  Instead, he wanted to take a break from mayoral duties and  _ join  _ Nora.

“Is this non-negotiable?” Deacon asked as Hancock walked outside for an impromptu town hall meeting.  Words fell short of how Nora was feeling - she just shrugged her shoulders as her mouth hung open in surprise.  “Am I supposed to be okay with this?  Do you want me to be okay with this?”

“I…”  Hancock still scared the shit out of her, so it was unlikely she was going to put up a fight about this.  And she kind of owed him.  For getting blood all over his storeroom and whatnot.  “Is this really happening?”

Deacon looked around at the dusty, unwelcoming room of the State House.  “I  _ hope  _ this isn’t really happening.  Hancock really needs to hire a maid service.”

“Be serious, D.”

“I  _ am _ .  It’s a good business plan.”  Deacon ran his finger across a nearby surface and grimaced at the dust.  “So I’m assuming you’ll want to get acquainted with this guy, huh?  I’ll run that op without you so you can…I don’t know what you and Hancock would do.  So you can shoot up some bad guys?  Or drugs?”

Nora narrowed her eyes at him.  They both knew it was not as safe as being together, but Nora surely couldn’t bring  _ Hancock  _ to liberate some synths.  “I’ll see you back at HQ,” Deacon told her followed by a brief hug.

They both knew that whatever this was, it was going to be a good idea.  But Hancock was never a good idea in the first place, wasn’t he?


End file.
